Trail Monday - Rum River North

In a surprise for 2016, I did a (sort of) trail run.  I hadn't been doing that since winter and then my catastrophic fall and ankle failure.  Also unusual is that I worked on a Monday (which is not my thing)  These two circumstances together put me near a trail I remember but hadn't run in a couple of years. 

Trail: Rum River North County Park is this little gem in St Francis, MN.  The park itself doesn't have a ton of mileage for hiking or running, so I did some loops more than once.

Hills: There are hills.  They are steep but mostly short and survivable.  Running down them is fun as hell.

Ease of Running:  This has a little bit of everything.  There is paved trail, wood chip trail, grass, and even a little bit of single track.  The majority of the non-paved trail is a gravel road masquerading as something pleasant to run on.  It is pleasant until the ball of my foot lands on a big piece of gravel and then it blows again for a while.  I should've worn something other than minimal shoes for this trail.  Lesson learned.

Nature: Nothing exciting.  It's the middle of the day and there's a huge construction project on the road nearby, so I wasn't terribly disappointed.

Will I come back: Yes, I will run here again if I'm in the area.  But I won't go out of my way to get here.  The main drawback is the mileage on the trails is quite short.  The biggest plus is the wonderful scenery.